newbie questions

[tinpanalley]

This is my first time here. Just trying to go around online looking for legitimate places that are still running to talk Mafia with people.

I've got my game running on Win10, surprised by that actually. But when I first installed it, I didn't bother with a controller. Well, my 360 controller didn't exist
So some questions if people can help me out...
1. Can this game work perfectly with a 360 controller?
2. I've got a widescreen fix that also claims to fix the deadzone on the analog sticks but it doesn't seem to work perfectly. Cars sort of drift slightly left and right.
3. I also have a Logitech F710 with both D-input and X-input via a switch. Would that be better than the 360 controller?
4. I've got a bit of a flickering issue near the tires of my cars when I drive around. Any fix for that?
4. What's the best place for mods, graphics and other kinds, and is it really an improvement for the game or is it best to play it as it first came out?

Thanks to anyone who can help me out, as I said, I really am coming back to this game almost 20 years after I first bought it so I have no idea where to go to chat about it. Maybe a discord or something?

Thanks!!

[Hunter]

I will tell you what I know about.

First off, we aren't people. We're Mafia bots, placed here for all eternity to resemble a Mafia community. Beep boop.

Secondly, some cars drift. Only a few really. Or maybe they all do. But you should only notice it on a few of the late game cars. So that's probably an issue with your controller. It's possible to play this game with a steering wheel, though I've never done it.

Next, it's not a widescreen fix. It's a mod. Full screen isn't broken

Flickering, hard to say. Could be drivers, could be the widescreen patch, could be settings. Is this a shadow flickering?

My recommendation is generally, you want the view distance changes. AKA UDD or Mugshot's pack if you're lazy. UDD requires you to tediously edit game files yourself. Mugshot's pack is pretty good but a couple of missions are, um, not right without some fog and shouldn't be run with those scene2.bins.

You definitely want to make sure AF is turned up. Amazed at how that somehow gets left alone and every street in the city is blurry.

Suggestion, use a real car names mod. I mean, why not. They are real models, this is a story about humans, obviously there is a genericized setting. The made up brands don't add to the mise en scene, they detract from it. And there's no spoken dialog including any brands, so it is neat.

Personally I can't really recommend aspect ratio mods especially if they don't actually work on GUI, but there's no accounting for taste...

---

Oh yeah, once you've played though the game and Freeride Extreme, there's some crazy mods that have been made over the years that give you new missions and such. Most of them are on the Freeride Extreme level of sophistication, but some are more creative and, you know, why not. Sadly I can't give you any advice about what to try; just check out the mod forum and see what people have been working on.

[tinpanalley]

[Hunter]

[ASM.]

[Zsombor]